Assessment of routinely collected information on internet sex offenders by criminal justice social workers and the police in Scotland: an exploratory study
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Date
29/06/2016Author
Henning, Christopher John
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Abstract
The number of offenders who have been convicted of possession, distribution or
production of sexually explicit media involving children (SEMIC) has increased
exponentially in the last decade. The majority of these cases have been
facilitated by increased availability and affordability of the internet and mobile
technology. This has led both practitioners and academics to question whether
or not internet sex offenders are a new type of offender or whether they are
similar to contact offenders who target children offline. Questions have also
been raised as to whether or not such internet sex offenders are a homogenous
group or whether they can be distinguished by their potential to recidivate or
escalate to contact offences. This thesis contributes to this body of knowledge
by assessing the information routinely collected on internet sex offenders by
criminal justice social workers and the police in Scotland. The forensic reports
produced by the police (N=80) alongside matched social enquiry reports from
criminal justice social workers (N=30), on all of the offenders convicted for
breach of section 52 of the Civic Government Scotland Act (1982) in a particular
region of Scotland from 2002-2009, were assessed. Police reports contained
detailed information relating to specific offending behaviours: the number of
images/videos found on the offender’s computer; the age and sex of the
children depicted; the severity of the SEMIC (based on the modified COPINE
scale); where the SEMIC was from and how it was stored; whether the offender
attempted to hide any images or videos, and whether or not he shared or
produced any SEMIC. These reports also noted whether the offender had any
previous convictions, as well as age at the time of the offence. Based on the
social enquiry reports, the criminal justice social workers focused on
demographic characteristics (age, educational background, employment
history, family status) of the offenders as well as the attitudes or beliefs they
might have held (expression of remorse or guilt and admission to being sexually
attracted to children). The social enquiry reports also provided risk assessments, which assessed this group of internet sex offenders as a normally
distributed range from low to very high risk to reoffend utilizing the RM2000
and Stable/Acute 2007. The criminal justice social workers did not differentiate
between offenders in their management recommendations, which as reported
in social enquiry reports, included: no use of the internet except for education
or employment; no ownership of devices capable of taking or receiving
images/videos, and no unsupervised access to children. Statistical analysis of
this sample showed that distinctions between internet sex offenders could be
made based on their offending behaviour, demographic information and
attitudes they held about the crime. Correlation analysis suggested that
offenders who were in possession of SEMIC depicting very young children were
also likely to be in possession of SEMIC depicting boys and Level 4/5 images or
videos (based on the modified COPINE scale). In addition, offenders who
possessed very large collections of SEMIC were also the most likely to be in
possession of the most deviant images and videos. Post-hoc analysis suggested
offenders who were producers of SEMIC were more likely to have been in
relationships and single offenders were more likely to be in possession of the
more deviant collections. Contrary to what was expected, the size of an
offender’s collection of SEMIC was negatively correlated with the risk
assessment level reported by the criminal justice social workers. These results
are discussed in the context of current research on risk assessment and
management. Based on that current literature and the results of this research, it
is recommended that criminal justice social workers utilize information relating
the offender’s behaviour, or more specifically the quantity and deviancy of the
SEMIC he possessed, in relation to his social circumstances when making
recommendations for management and assessing his risk to reoffend.